Supreme Court Sluggers: John Paul Stevens is no Stephen J. Field

Assessing
the great length of John Paul Stevens’s service as a Supreme Court Justice (34
years, 6 months, 10 days) should involve more than just adding up time. By the calendar, he is in third place on the
list of longest-serving members of the Court, just behind Stephen J. Field (34
years, 6 months, 11 days) and further behind William O. Douglas (36 years, 6
months, 26 days). An argument might be
made, however, that Stevens’s length-of-service ranking should be higher – that
he ought to be recognized as standing a little bit ahead of Field, and perhaps
closer to Douglas as well. It is an
argument that depends on what it means to “serve” on the Court. After all, it is “Service[]” that the
Constitution expects of the “Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts.”